Foundational Skills FAQ

Overview: Below is a list of FAQ related to Literably's Foundational Skills Assessment. The Foundational Skills assessment includes a phonics assessment and a phonological awareness (PA) assessment. 

Foundational Skills FAQ

Question	Answer
Is there a quick video that helps me understand what the FS assessment looks and feels like?	Yes, click here to watch this ~1 minute video.
What devices can my student take a FS assessment on?	Students can take the FS assessment on the following devices: Laptop/Desktop Computers: Using the Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge browsers.  Chromebooks: Using the Chrome browser iPads: Using the Literably app (Note: the iPad cannot be in Low Power Mode.)
How do my students log into a FS assessment?	Click here to learn more about how students log into the FS assessment. Note: students log into their FS assessment the same way they log into their Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) assessment.
Can I give students a demo of the FS assessment before they get started?	Yes, you can demo the FS assessment for students from your dashboard. Click here to learn more about this topic.
Do students take the phonics assessment and PA assessment at the same time?	While students can take both assessments back-to-back in the same day or week, students will need to log into the phonics and PA assessment separately in order to complete them both. Literably separated these assessments so that students are not required to complete all phonics and PA questions together in one (longer) assessment session. In addition, by separating these assessments, it allows Literably to provide staff with easier-to-understand and more useful data insights on students within the specific domains of phonics and PA.
Broadly speaking, how much can I assess my students on the FS assessment?	Each school or district will purchase a number of Foundational Skills "assessment rounds" as part of a Literably subscription. Some of Literably's most popular subscriptions include 3 assessment rounds per year, 4 assessment rounds per year, and 9 assessment rounds per year.  Schools and districts also have the ability to subscribe for weekly or biweekly assessment rounds.  Within each round, each staff member has some discretion on how many phonics and phonological awareness skill assessments they can give students.  That said, Literably recommends that staff have students take as many skill assessments as needed in order to identify a group of skills that they want to then help students improve on until their next assessment round. Staff can identify skills and subskills that students can improve on by using the color-coded scaled scores (which will typically be coded red or yellow) that are reviewable on staff dashboards and on each graded assessment page.    How staff approach each assessment round will most likely change when Literably releases the ability to assign just subskill assessments (e.g., as assessment that is just focused on the deletion skill within PA) to students.
I'm not sure if my student should start on Literably's FS assessment or Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) assessment. What should I do?	In general, if you know that your student is a pre-reader, Literably would recommend that you first have the student assess on our FS assessment (on our phonics and/or PA assessment). If you think your student can read a level A text in Literably without significant frustration, then it may be fine to have that student start assessing on Literably's ORF assessment or FS assessment. If you're not sure if your student can read a level A text in Literably, here are a few items to consider and tools you can use in Literably to help guide your thinking on this topic.
What are the scoring conventions are used on the FS assessment?	You can access a full list of these FS scoring conventions here. You can also access Literaby's phoneme chart here.
I'm having a hard time understanding my student's graded FS assessment.  Do you have a resource that can help me?	Yes, click here to learn more about this topic.
Can I just assign a specific phonics or PA skill to my student, instead of their entire phonics or PA assessment?	Yes, click here to learn more about assigning specific skills to create a custom FS assessment.
What PA skills does the FS assessment cover?	The FS assessment covers the below PA skills: 1. Deletion 2. Addition 3. Isolation 4. Segmentation 5. Blending 6. Substitution In the near future, we plan to add rhyming to our PA assessment.
How long does a PA assessment typically take?	On average, the PA assessment takes around 13 minutes to complete. Note: students can pause their PA assessment if they need to take a break during their assessment. Students can also log out of their PA assessment and return to it at a later date to complete (without losing any of their earlier assessment progress).
What PA skills does the FS assessment cover?	The FS assessment covers the below phonics skills: 1. Affixes 2. Blends 3. Consonant Vowel Consonants 4. Digraphs 5. Inflectional Ending 6. Letter Names 7. Letter Sounds 8. Multisyllabic 9. R Controlled Vowel 10. Vowel Consonant E 11. Vowel Team
How long does a phonics assessment typically take?	On average, the phonics assessment takes around 3 minutes to complete. Note: students can pause their phonics assessment if they need to take a break during their assessment. Students can also log out of their phonics assessment and return to it at a later date to complete (without losing any of their earlier assessment progress).